Huawei seeks closer ties with Japan after creating 46,000 jobs and amid plan to spend US$10 billion

Huawei Technologies is turning to Japan to bolster its supply chain and deepen research links as China’s telecoms giant attempts to shift its dependence away from the US, its biggest supplier, where it has been blacklisted.

Parts procured from Japanese companies are set to total 1.1 trillion yen (US$10 billion) in 2019, on par with the amount spent in the US last year, according to comments by chairman Liang Hua on Thursday.

Speaking to a gathering of executives and scholars from Japan’s top firms and universities in Tokyo, Liang said he expected procurement and cooperation with Japan on developing next-generation technologies to increase in future.

Huawei and Japanese companies are in a “mutually complementary relationship,” Liang said at the briefing, a transcript of which was verified by the company. “Japan is a very important market for Huawei and plays an important role in the supply chain.”

Huawei created over 46,000 jobs in Japan last year, both directly and indirectly through local partnership deals, according to a recent Oxford Economics report on the company’s economic impact in the country. Liang’s friendly comments and visit to Japan come after Washington added Huawei to its Entity List in May, restricting the Shenzhen-based company’s access to American-origin technologies such as software and semiconductors.